Sleep Deprived Star Wars Edition -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

(JEFF McADAMS ATTENDED THE STAR WARS "THE LAST JEDI" LAST NIGHT AND THIS COULD PROVE TO BE A REAL INTERESTING ARTICLE TODAY.  BEWARE OF PORGS AND THAT GUY IN THE BLACK HELMET. NO, NOT LAMAR JACKSON...)

Graduation

Tonight is the University of Louisville's Winter Commencement.  99 UofL current or former student athletes are graduating in this winter season, though not all will be at the ceremony, of course.

There are 5 individuals that will be receiving their degrees with playing time still to come at UofL, including a couple of popular names around Cardinal Couple.  AC, Arica Carter will be one of the, while a former women's basketball player and current track and field athlete, Emmonnie Henderson will be collecting diplomas.  Also on the list is the Poof, Nicole Pufahl who came in from patrolling the outfield at Ulmer, along with a rower, Erin Enk, and another track and fielder, on the guys side, Damar Robinson.

One of our CC favorites...The "Slapper" Jordan McNary from softball is also going to dash from the seats to the podium to grab her paper and may try for second. "The Governor" now can add' college graduate' to her resume of political candidate list of accomplishments.

Congratulations to these current student athletes.

There are also several familiar names that have completed their time at UofL and have returned to finish their degrees, including Bilal Powell, finding time to hit the books between reps with the New York Jets, and Joao De Lucca, Brazilian swimmer extraordinaire.

Of course there are numerous other student athletes that are just finishing up their eligibility and finishing their academic studies at the same time.  Most will not graduate until Spring, but some have gotten ahead of schedule and completing their coursework a semester early.  The two that I know of in that list are unsurprisingly from Volleyball, Tess Clark and Coline Coessens.

Whatever scandals UofL may have had of late, I do think it's important to note that the quality of academic instruction at the University has never been called into question.  Yes, the SACS accreditation thing happened, but that was all about questions of administrative independence from the state and never, to my knowledge, even hinted that, despite all of that, academic instruction was suffering.

So congratulations to all of the UofL students in general, and the student-athletes both current and former, that are graduating tonight.  You have every right to be proud of your accomplishments, and at least for today, I'm not referring to any activities on courts, fields, pitches, diamonds, pools, tracks, lakes and rivers, or whatever else your venue of play might have been. You're a college graduate and we cheer just as loud for that.


UK vs UofL tickets

Paulie's e-mail exchange with Cards super-fan Jerry Smith early this morning reports that the tickets he bought for Cardinal fans for the game are going pretty quickly. He has a few left.

Per Jerry:

I still have 13 left.  They are lower level

tickets. 

I can email them and I will trust Cardinal fans 

to either send payment to my PayPal account 

or bring the money to me at the game. 

I paid $9 each and would like to get my 
money back if possible but if a Cardinal fan

wants to go and doesn’t have the 

money, I will give him a ticket. 

My email address is Louavulpugs@gmail.com

That is the best way to 
reach me. 

Jerry Smith 

More Honors

Case mentioned a couple of honors for UofL student athletes yesterday, and more news along this line hit in the meantime.

Basketball

Current hoopster Asia Durr, and Cardinals legend Angel McCoughtry were both named to the USA Basketball National Team Pool.  This is the pool of players from which the National Team is expected to be selected.  While we talk about the National Team in the singular, it's actually a bit of a fluid thing as, depending on player development and availability, the Roster selected for particular competitions can shift somewhat.

Regardless of the specific make-up of teams, to be selected for the National Team Pool effectively puts Durr and McCoughtry in the top 29 players in the country, at least in the estimation of the Selection committee.  The Women's National Team is currently coached by Dawn Staley, head coach at South Carolina, and there will be a Team mini-camp Feb. 9-11th.  Durr and the other four college players will not be participating in the camp due to collegiate commitments, and several other players are in professional play in Asia so they won't be participating either.

Walz addressed the media today about the game and other things

LISTEN HERE

Soccer

Tim Kubel, in addition to be a major asset for Men's Soccer on the pitch, earned a First Team Scholar All-American selection.

In his four years, Kubel has maintained a 3.69 GPA while majoring in Finance....  I've taken finance classes in the past, so I know just how impressive it is to make it through that material...not exactly page-turning stuff, there...and to do so while maintaining such academic standards while also maintaining the level of athletic training that he has is impressive stuff.

Congratulations to Tim.

Cardinal Couple Radio Hour

Our new digs, lit up at night! 

Tune in tomorrow to catch the last live Cardinal Couple Radio Hour of the year.  The WCHQ studios are moving, so the studio facility will be unavailable for a couple of weeks during the process, so CCRH will have to go on a bit of a break.  We're considering how we might be able to do some pre-recorded shows, perhaps abbreviated from our usual hour-long format, but there are some logistical issues to work out for that, so that's up in the air as to whether that happens.

The line-up for tomorrow, barring any game-time developments, will be me, Paulie, Case, and classing up the joint as always, Julie "Santa wears red for a reason" Sullivan.

Check us out on 100.9 FM in the central Louisville area, or via the WCHQ app, or their website at http://crescenthillradio.org.

-- 

JMcA